LIVIGNO, Italy -- Japanese snowboarder Yuto Totsuka won the Olympic gold medal in men's halfpipe at the Milan Cortina Games on Friday as Scotty James repeated as the silver medalist. Totsuka laid down a massive second run that earned him 95 points. James had the last run of the final after he topped qualifying Wednesday. But the Australian fell near the end of his run, failing to improve on his second-run score of 93.50.
Ester Ledecka's quest to become the first snowboarder to win gold medals in three straight Olympics came to a surprisingly early end Sunday. She lost her quarterfinal race in the sport's parallel giant slalom by 0.06 seconds to Austria's Sabine Payer. The 30-year-old Czech racer was a big favorite for gold. She hadn't lost a PGS World Cup race in almost two years and hadn't missed a podium in five.
